> There is no language that is "uber alles".   The domain of the problem
> you're solving often points to the languages you might consider.

Yes indeed.  Each has pros/cons.

Perl is powerful, and has lots of libraries.  But TMWTDI often results in 
unmaintainable code, particularly if someone else has to take over the 
project.  Good for job security :)  

Java is very formal, thus fairly well organized.  I find it somewhat elegant in 
that sense.  But it leads to 'bureacracy' in the code, such as factory factory 
factories.  Easily outsourced to India.

PHP is in the c-like family of languages, but much more forgiving. You can be 
sloppy or formal.  Pretty much a standard for websites (other than 'enterprise 
systems', which are java).  

.Net - The tools are actually pretty powerful, and VB is becoming much like 
C#.  But expensive and proprietary.  Works best if you run windows :)

C or C++ are mainly for embedded code, operating systems, or where performance 
is critical.  But they are too low-level for most tasks.  Strings are not 
natively supported by the language.  No automatic GC.  Memory allocation is 
like juggling knives.  But this is the language that underpins pretty much all 
of the software industry.  

D - never really enticed me enought to go back to the C* world.

Objective-C,  necessary to write iPhone, iPod, iPad, and native Mac apps.  
Like a weird c++.  

Ruby - mixed feelings.  Very amorphous and flexible, which means you can also 
do things like extend classes dynamically without others knowing about it.  

Scheme/Lisp - good to know, but rarely used in production.

Python - mixed feeling.  Awesome libraries available, like Orange for AI.  
Whitespace is significant.  This is suprisingly helpful.  Unless you get 
whitespace messed up in a "tabs vs spaces" war.  Tabs should win, of course.

ADA - often required for government or govt-regulated projects.

Javascript - really common for web applications.  Easy.  But used too much, 
typically for excessive animatiions.  JQuery 

Flash/AS3 - I though I would hate it, but it's just javascript, and turns out 
to be a good development platform.  Powerful libraries for media.  Partially 
open source.  Things like video processing are trivial.  You can use the video 
card for accelerated calculations.

Basic (GW/Q/A/Apple)- ah the memories

Assembly - ah the reboots

awk - good for one-liners

sed - not a big fan

punchcards - do *not* drop the tray just before submitting it, else your 
coworkers will tell me the story 20 years later.

Befunge - fun.  Simple operators.  Resembles the matrix when running.  Easier 
to visualize than perl :}

BrainF**k -  like the obfuscated-C contest, if you had massive operator-
overloading.

LOLCODE - implements recursive irony

Whitespace - a favorite.  One of the polyglot languages.  Incompatible with 
python, unless you are really, really good.

Pascal - might as well use C

matlab/scilab/octave - great for processing data through lots of formulae.

VHDL, Verilog, JHDL, MyHDL, RHDL -  SImilar to DHL or Fedex for bits of data, 
For when it absolutely has to be there on time.  About as low as you can go 
with software.

Up and coming languages.  Allegedly good.  Already attracting hipsters.
	Erlang
	Lua
	Haskell 
	Clojure 
	OCaml	//used on wall street. But that doesn't mean it crashes.

Jeremy



On Friday 26 March 2010 12:43:32 pm Steve Cayford wrote:
> I would second the perl vote. One-liners, system administration, web
> applications, it runs the gamut and scales well. Just follow best practices
> to keep code clean and manageable.
>
> -Steve
>
> Yaron wrote:
> > On Fri, 26 Mar 2010, r j wrote:
> >> A question on languages.
> >> What are your favor languages and what are your favorite ways to use
> >> them.
> >
> > Perl. It's the swiss-army-language.
> >
> > I've played around with PHP (which seemed a lot like bastardized perl).
> >
> > If I was trying to do something serious, I'd probably still go with C,
> > though.
> >
> >
> > -Yaron
>
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